In some circumstances, particularly in military applications, it may be desirable to provide temporary shelters for personnel and/or equipment. For example, it is desirable to provide a temporary shelter for military personnel who are being transported on a military vehicle, such as a hovercraft, that does not have sufficient cabin space for the military personnel to safely reside during transport. The temporary shelter is assembled on the deck of the military vehicle and protects the military personnel during transport.
Typically, the applications for the temporary shelters dictate that the temporary shelters be assembled rapidly without burdening the assemblers with a complex assembly process, yet provide an adequate shelter for the personnel and/or equipment housed in the temporary shelter. For example, the temporary shelters are often times assembled in a remote location to provide shelter for personnel and/or equipment during execution of short-term missions. The total amount of time the personnel are in the remote location is often times minimal so the portion of time committed in the assembly of the shelter has to be minimized. The temporary shelter is also required to provide adequate protection for the personnel and/or equipment by, for example, providing protection from weather elements, fire, and/or high sound levels. A complex assembly process of the temporary shelter adds to the amount of time allotted to the assembly of the temporary shelter, yet the assembly process cannot be simplified to the point that the temporary shelter no longer provides an adequate shelter.
Conventional temporary shelters, such as conventional personnel transport modules (PTM) used in the transport of military personnel, typically have issues that include but are not limited to corrosion, water leakage, and/or difficulty in assembly. The conventional PTM is assembled with panels made of a composite material that includes a foam inner layer that is between two outer layers of aluminum. The aluminum is bounded to the foam with polyurethane. The polyurethane absorbs moisture and then delaminates resulting in corrosion of the conventional PTM. The conventional PTM also does not include a moisture absorbing material between each panel to protect the conventional PTM from leaking moisture into the conventional PTM.
The panels of the conventional PTM are assembled together with ratchet locks. Each respective panel must be directly aligned with each other panel for the ratchet locks to sufficiently lock each respective panel together in forming the conventional PTM. The ratchet locks fail to provide tolerance levels in the alignment of each respective panel that would enable each panel to not have to be directly aligned with each other for the ratchet locks to sufficiently lock each panel together. The difficulty provided in directly aligning each respective panel with each other complicates the assembly process and adds unnecessary time in assembling the conventional PTM. Therefore, an effective means to provide and assemble a modular shelter that can be easily assembled but yet provide adequate protection is needed.